Berlin

Again, I have left this far too long to accurately get down everything that happened with our Berlin adventure.  But let's take it back to the fusion and see how we get on.

On the last day of the festival, it had that 'party's over' type of atmosphere in the place.  Tents were all going, the zombies were searching for the bass drum that you could still hear in the distance.  We had put a sign on the coffee bar asking if anyone was going to Berlin and if we could catch a ride.  There was no luck so far though.  All through the festival we were camped right next to the Dub stage, and that bass line is still stuck in my head.  When you lay your head on the ground to sleep, the vibrations rattled your ear lobes and brain.  It seemed like it was just one bass line constantly for 72 hours straight. We hadn't had a good nights sleep or a hot shower for a week now, but on the last day we went for a swim in the cold lake.  Then Jetske, who was with us at the coffee bar doing massages said she quite fancied an adventure in Berlin, and would drive with us to there.  The sun had finally came after 2 days of rain at the festival, and on a gorgeous day we got on in the car and on the road again.....

The drive was nice, listening to Van Morrison, hitting some high speeds on the Autobahn.  We were approaching Berlin and once we got there we fell in love with the place.  The buildings were so colourful, the sun shone on them and brought out the pinks and sky blues, and murials everywhere.  Graffiti on every bit of space there could be.  But more than that, you could just feel an electricity in the atmosphere.  The city was alive, and we got such a great vibe.  The first thing we needed to do, was drink a beer and eat a falafel.  And that we did.  In Berlin, you are never more than five meters away from a cold beer for less than a euro and a good falafel.  We walked round the city, seeing these gorgeous views and buildings.  We had a contact for someone who said we could crash on their couch, so we needed to find an internet cafe to get online and get her details.  Everything was so cheap!  They still did things in cents, like 32 cents for half an hour of internet and stuff. 92cents for a beer, cheap chocolate and everything just seemed so good for us.  We got the details of where we were gonna stay and drunk some more beers.

The telephone number she had given us wasn't working, and the address had noone home.  Hmmm, we wondered what we could do and went to try and find a hostel for 8 euroes a night.  We had left the festival with 50 euroes for our work and when the hostel was fully booked, we thought 'Shit, it's all gonna go if we get a more expensive one'.  We couldn't find one though, everything was booked. Wherever we would go it was no vacancies.  We prepared ourselves for a night on the streets.  We were so tired from the festival, so dirty and just needing to lie down.  We found a park bench, and Jetske kept the stuff in her car, and me and Niz slept for the night on the park bench.  It was a strange experience, but I feel when I am with Niz, we can overcome anything.  We are strong together, and after that night on the bench I fell in love with her even more.  She is such a strong hearted, fiery girl, and when she accepted we were on the bench, there was no complaints or big worries, we knew our lucky stars would look after us.  As the sun came up, we drifted in and out of sleep as people walked by, and the working day began.

Our first night in Berlin

When we got online again in the morning, we had a message from the girl who said we could stay with her, saying sorry she had given us the wrong number, and we could go there from 5pm that day.  This was a relief.  We just wanted a shower and a bed so bad, sleeping roughly for over a week takes its toll on you.  When we got there, we were welcomed warmly and took a nice hot shower and lay down for a little bit.  We went busking that night, and played right next to a main road that was so noisy, but we still made about ten euroes in total.  Amsterdam is so quiet, and acoustic music thrives there, but Berlin was noisy and hard to find a quiet spot.  From this point, we pooled all our money together.  We became a closer team.  Upto now, we were splitting what we made, but it was pointless, as I am bad with money, I just can't save it.  When we did this, we became even stronger.  We had spent 3 weeks together, and only bin apart for a few hours in total.  I felt I had found someone really special.  A beautiful and amazing violin playing girl, with a wild travelling heart, who brings out the best in me.  

Busking in Berlin

We could stay with the girl in Berlin for 3 days before we needed to find somewhere else.  We posted on the Emergency Couch group and received a message from Anja, who said we could stay with her for a few days.  We both had a good feeling about it.  Niz is never wrong with her feelings and we set out from East Berlin, to West.  When we arrived at Anja's, it was like coming home.  The place had such a warmth, and homely atmosphere and we met a very special family who will always have a place in our hearts.  The daughter Layla, an 11 year old genius.  Who spoke perfect English, with a beautiful tint of German Indian.  The 2 boys, Lada and Bada, who were born to be Bollywood stars.  So full of life and energy in their eyes. And Anja, a beautiful and strong woman and a natural mother at heart.  For a few days, Niz had been craving Indian food, and when Anja brought out one of the best curries I had ever tasted we knew our lucky stars had looked after us again.  

One night when we came back from busking, we sat with Leyla and talked about the universe and philosophy until midnight.  She asked me if there were any questions I would love to know the answer to.  I said, 'I like the fact that some things will never be answered, like what is infinity, and why are the pyramids there, what happens when you die'.  Leyla reads a book a day, she sings perfectly the melodies she hears from Bollywood songs after listening only once, she is a truly gifted and brilliant mind and that night will always stick out for me.  The boys had taken a liking to us aswell, and were calling us Uncle and Auntie, we would play with them for hours, and they would never tire.  They have eyes full of love and life, and that is all because of the great mother they have.  Anja brings those boys up with such love and strength that it was truly inspiring and heart warming to be a part of.

Anja and the kids.

On Sunday Anja took us to Maur park, and I know why she did.  We were leaving for Dresden on Tuesday, and when we got to the park we were amazed and in awe even more of Berlin.  There were musicians EVERYWHERE!  Street musicians every few metres, just playing for the hell of it.  People practising in the park, an ampitheatre that had hundreds of people seated, singing along to karaoke (I asked to do a song, but was just a few minutes too late, damn!'.  We did a bit of busking ourselves, drank some beers, fell in love even more with each other and Berlin.  We were very sad to be leaving for Dresden, as our plan was to head South as fast as we could and get to Switzerland via Prague, Nuremburg and Munich.  But we would find ourselved back in Berlin and Anja's sooner than we thought....

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